Need advice on removing a BUD from a high roof

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thisBUDsforyou

SatelliteGuys Guru
Original poster
Dec 9, 2007
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I've been offered a BUD on a 2nd story roof about an hour's drive from me. I haven't seen it but from the owner's description it's about eight feet in diameter and perforated. Apparently the guy bought the property recently and wants the dish gone.

What I'm picturing is tying a rope to the dish somehow, unfastening it from the tripod and lowering it to the ground. From what the guy said there is a walkout basement on the side where the dish would be lowered so I'm guessing it's about thirty feet from the roof to the driveway there. Anyone ever attempt anything like this? Am I out of my mind? How many people would you need on the roof to do this halfway safely? How much does an eight foot perforated dish weigh? How the heck did they get an eight foot dish up onto a 2nd story roof in the first place? Are perforated dishes made in one piece or can they be taken apart into smaller more manageable pieces?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
If you don't have a crane available, dismantle the dish into manageable pieces. The roof is not someplace to try and man-handle an 8 foot dish. The best advise - Safety, Safety, Safety!
 
I agree. Get some tools and take it into 2 panel pieces. I dismantled one on the ground, don't know if I would have even tried on a roof.
 
Need a picture or more info. Some perf. dishes can be disassembled while still on the poll. The entire dish is allowed to spin while the panels are unbolted at the bottom.
 
i help a friend take one off the roof a bar once. I loosened the jack bolts then had the dish rest on the mount and waited for him to show up to help with the lifting. I had all bolts loose, then he held the dish and I pulled all the bolts off the mount. We tied a rope to the dish and lowered it off the roof. Next we took the mount, jack, and pipe supports off. and carried them down through a window.. On the ground my friend took all the bolts that held the dish together and tied it to his roof rack on a blazer.

One mistake I made, I forgot to tell him about the loose jack bolts on the clamp. He put it all back together but the wind help bend the lip of the dish as it slid from the two bolts being loose and hitting the pipe support for the pole. The dish was perfect until that and free.

Watch out for any electric lines! And do it on a calm day, it anit worth your life, be careful!
 
Let me repeat something a very wise man said above:
If you don't have a crane available, dismantle the dish into manageable pieces.
The roof is not someplace to try and man-handle an 8 foot dish.
The best advise - Safety, Safety, Safety!
Some of the dishes are pretty light, and some are NOT !
Same goes for some mounts.

A while back one of our members, jsattv, found a dish on a 1-story roof and wanted to take it home.
He posted a number of high quality pictures of everything on the roof, and we were able to give him good advice on how/where to disassemble the big dish, info about the mount, and call out other small dishes that were on the roof.
(search back to the discussion for some inspiration)
It's amazing info what a good picture can convey!
 
The one we pulled off the bar was a 10 Foot Antennas
105 lbs. Anole is right, know what you are getting into. I could have picked up a 10 solid fiberglass dish once that was giving to my kids school. It was never put up and was on the grass. I tried to lift one side of it. Forget it! I left that one, I think they cut it up and put it in a dumpster.
 
The more I think about this the less appealing it seems. I don't have a ladder long enough to reach to the bottom of the roof (about 20 feet or so from what the man said), so would have to use one ladder to get to the garage roof and another ladder on top of the garage roof to get to the house roof. I think I'm gonna just forget about it.

Over the weekend I was offered an old Birdview dish. The dish looked to be solid steel, eight feet in diameter as near as I could tell. The dish was mounted on a steel pole out in the middle of the back yard. The bottom of the dish was at least ten feet off of the ground. That steel mounting pole was at least nine inches in diameter and braced with angle irons on four sides. I have no idea what was underground but I'm picturing at least two yards of concrete, and I imagine it took a crane to get the dish up there. The dish was attached to the mount with six bolts up top and another six bolts down below. The bolts on the top were rusted solid. I put a ladder onto the pole and tried my wimpy little socket wrench on those top bolts and quickly realized that that wasn't going to get 'em off. Probably would take a good sized compressor and an air tool or a socket wrench with a very long handle.

Well to make a long story short I gave up on that dish as well. Even if I managed to remove the rusted bolts I would have created a dangerous situation - no great way to break the fall of the dish once it came loose, so several hundred pounds of solid steel crashing ten feet to the ground. And even if I managed to get that sucker home, how was I going to mount it to do anything with it?

Now you may be wondering how I was offered two BUD's in one weekend. I had an ad in Craigslist. The tag line was "Get rid of that ugly old satellite dish!". Got a lot of responses to that ad - I'm going to get an old P* dish tomorrow night. I guess the trick is to get people to see the benefit of giving away their old dish - one man's eyesore is another man's treasure! :)
 
b...bu...Birdview ?

Bud4U -

For that prized Birdview, you might read some of the ramblings of Linuxman.
He's gotten several Birdview dishes, so far, and is off to get another this month.

As for the tight hardware, check what the guys recommend for penetrating oil, put some on and leave it a few days, THEN try to loosen the bolts!

Tell us where you are located (well where that Birdview is anyway) and maybe someone else will take it if you don't.
 
Over the weekend I was offered an old Birdview dish. The dish looked to be solid steel, eight feet in diameter as near as I could tell. The dish was mounted on a steel pole out in the middle of the back yard. The bottom of the dish was at least ten feet off of the ground. That steel mounting pole was at least nine inches in diameter and braced with angle irons on four sides. I have no idea what was underground but I'm picturing at least two yards of concrete, and I imagine it took a crane to get the dish up there. The dish was attached to the mount with six bolts up top and another six bolts down below. The bolts on the top were rusted solid. I put a ladder onto the pole and tried my wimpy little socket wrench on those top bolts and quickly realized that that wasn't going to get 'em off. Probably would take a good sized compressor and an air tool or a socket wrench with a very long handle.
The Birdview dish isn't steel, it is aluminum, and will weigh no more than 75 lbs by itself. On the other hand, the mount is probably 100 lbs by itself.

I use PB Blaster on rusted bolts and as Anole says, squirt some on and let it set for a couple of day, repeat etc. Try and get the squirt between the cap and the pole.

The dish can be separated from the mount, and lowered to the ground separately.

The mast will be 6 inches in diameter if using the OEM mast. It is really a tube and only 1/8 inch thick material.

If all else fails, like Anole said, post where the dish is located, and someone from here will go get it. Hmmm.

The Birdview dishes are worth a little extra time and effort! :D
 
Get that birdview if you still can it's the King Of Buds!!!....Fred will take it off ur hands if you dont take it LOL!!.. he loves those Birdviews. i wish i could get my hands on one. good luck man. and be safe up there if u get it. dont even try if it's windy lol. ur looking for trouble :cool:
 
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